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It is five days after Galactica and the fleet left Ragnar Anchorage and the Twelve Colonies behind in their search for Earth. Pursued by a Cylon Basestar, the fleet jumps away only for it to return 33 minutes later. Sleep deprivation is coming a serious issue across the fleet, particularly onboard Galactica. Dr. Gaius Baltar is more affected than others, owing to his continued encounters with Messenger Six. Seconds before the timer runs out, Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla reports that fifty-three ships have procedural jumped, but ten ships - Colonial One included - are having trouble with their engines due to overuse, this being the 237th planned jump. The Basestar arrives as expected and missiles strike Galactica's starboard bow before launching Raiders. Colonial One narrowly misses being destroyed by a missile, and with Galactica the only ship left, its Vipers, lead by Cpt. Lee Adama, land and it too jumps.

It is 130.34 hours (five and a half days) into the pursuit. Commander William Adama discusses new strategies with his XO, Col. Saul Tigh while shaving. Hoping to confuse the Cylons into giving up, he considers splitting the fleet into six groups, which will merge together again on the fourth jump. Col. Tigh believes it to be too complex to calculate in the time provided. At the pilots' briefing room, Cpt. Adama has run out of things to say to the Air Group, as the mission is the same as the past 237 times.

Elsewhere, Petty Officer Dualla joins a queue of crewmembers who are adding their names to a fleet-wide census of survivors. She hopes a friend or relative from Sagittaron is alive, but with the census unfinished it is impossible to check. Having a missing person's photograph she wanted to hand in, she is told there is a board outside. Going to it, she finds the corridor has become a shrine.

On Colonial One, President Laura Roslin is disappointed with the current survivor count estimates, which are 300 less than the previous estimate. Billy Keikeya explains a number of people died of injuries they sustained in the attack, and passes off the other discrepancies as the result of multiple people being counted twice by accident. President Roslin turns over to a whiteboard, where she writes down the total number of refugees in the fleet: 49,998. Messenger Six teases Dr. Baltar with the offer of a child, per God's command to be fruitful. He accidentally interrupts a discussion Keikeya is having with the President over Dr. Amorak, who he recalls as a fellow computer researcher at the Ministry of Defense. Dr. Amorak believes he has important information on how the Cylons were able to bypass the defence mainframe; Six hovers over the discussion, commenting on how "she" always suspected he was on to them. Dr. Baltar is terrified he will be found out. President Roslin asks that he meet her on Colonial One after jump 238, as there is not enough time to do so before the Basestar arrives.

On Cylon-occupied Caprica, Lt. Agathon rushes through a dense forest away from Centurions. In the possession of explosives, he is able to destroy the attackers.

On Galactica, in the minutes ahead of the jump, Petty Officer Dualla reports to Commander Adama there have been 12 new diagnoses among the crew of nervous exhaustion, which makes it 61 in total. Unable to retire crewmembes at this time, he asks for Dr. Cottle to prescribe steroids to keep them alert. They are showing signs of sleep deprivation, with Dualla handing over the same paperwork to sign twice, and Cmdr. Adama being unsure whether it is his or Col. Tigh's turn for a ten minute nap. Though it is in fact Col. Tigh's turn, he gives it to Adama, seeing his inability to recall who's turn it is as a sign he needs sleep more.

The Viper pilots return to the hangar deck, where Cpt. Adama has informed them of the order to take stimulants. Lt. Kara Thrace refuses to take them, as she finds their effect on combat performance overall as bad as the sleep deprivation. She begins arguing with him over his poor leadership skills as the new CAG - he should be threatening to have the pilots forcibly given stimulants rather than advising it. She quickly gives in and takes them.

Meanwhile on Caprica, Lt. Agathon is using up his anti-radiation medication. Exposed and in the rain, his face has turned to a sickly pale colour. After injecting himself, he spots a blonde woman standing in front of him. A Centurion approaches him from behind to take him prisoner.

Galactica has now finished Jump 238. While giving a toll, Petty Officer Dualla reports that the Olympic Carrier is absent on DRADIS, and realises that she failed to spot it was still with Galactica when the Cylons arrived. The ship is recorded to have held 1345 people onboard at the last count, all of whom are now feared dead. Lt. Felix Gaeta defends Dualla, saying the ship may have been destroyed before it was to jump. Col. Tigh doesn't care who's fault it was.

On Colonial One, the tally is revised and President Roslin prepares for her appointments to take her mind of the loss. Asking where Dr. Amorak is, she is told he was on the Olympic Carrier. Overhearing this, Messenger Six appears to Dr. Baltar again, telling him it was the action of God to keep him safe. When Dr. Baltar insists this is an extraordinary coincidence, she warns him not to provoke God. The clock runs out, but this time the Cylons do not show. Rather than jump away, the entire fleet has time to rest. Half the Vipers are ordered to land to give their pilots rest, while Cpt. Apollo; Lt. Starbuck and Lt. Valerii form a Combat Air Patrol around the fleet, chosen because all are on stimulants.

When the Olympic Carrier makes a sudden return to the fleet, all Vipers are readied for standby launch. Lt. Valerii inquires the ship about their condition. Its pilot says they had problems with their equipment which took three hours to repair, and the Cylons ignored them for unknown reasons. Dr. Baltar has another hallucination, where he is told that there must be another reason why they survived. He berates President Roslin for her naivity, saying it is a Cylon trap and the ship was probably being tracked all along. Commander Adama concurs, and orders all wireless traffic to be stopped with the ship to prevent the transmission of any viruses. The Vipers are launched, and Lt. Valerii orders the ship to cease its approach to the fleet, which is ignored. Warning shots are also ignored. Basestars jumps behind the Olympic Carrier. Lt. Quartararo detects a radiological alarm, meaning the Olympic Carrier is containing nuclear material, possibly weapons. The trap confirmed, Commander Adama asks President Roslin to give him orders to destroy the ship. Messenger Six forces Dr. Baltar to repent to God for his err, and Roslin grants the order. Ready to destroy the ship, the Viper pilots notice no one seems to be inside the ship, but they have no time to be certain, as the earlier plan to evacuate survivors via Raptor has been scuttled. Cpt. Apollo and Lt. Thrace begin firing at the ship from behind, destroying its engines which, in turn , destroys the whole ship.

Lt. Agathon wakes up on Caprica. He realises the woman, a Number Six, must be a Cylon and reads out his name, rank and service number. The woman is the shot by a Number Eight, who he believes to be his pilot. She goes with it, rescuing him. They are observed by another Six and a Centurion.

On Colonial One, 24 hours after the ship's destruction, President Roslin is woken up with news of a baby being born on the Rising Star.

Preparing for production of Battlestar Galactica's first season, writer and series creator Ronald D. Moore wrote a short list of potential storylines, one of which was "the fleet jumps every 33 minutes; because the Cylons are relentlessly pursuing them, the crew gets no sleep."[1] Conferring with fellow executive producer David Eick, the two decided that this story would be "the best way to kick off the season".[1] Moore described writing "33" as a great experience; he wrote the whole script without a story outline or much structure, excited to begin the first episode of the first season and start the first year already "at the end of the road".[2] Moore wrote the episode over his Christmas break before the series was officially picked up; he later claimed that this aspect was what made the episode "one of the more fun projects that [he] wrote all of the first season."[1]

David Eick found the episode to be a "standalone concept" that didn't require having seen the miniseries to understand it. Because the miniseries ended "at a very happy place", starting the series in the middle of a crisis without explanation, and showing the audience that "actually, while you—the audience—were away, really bad things have been happening" made for a much more intriguing and interesting story.[1]33's complex storyline was a harbinger for episodes to come, and laid the groundwork with the network and audiences alike.[1]

Moore explained on his blog that the number 33 had no hidden meaning or significance, only that he felt it sufficiently long to allow minor functions like snacking, showering, or cat napping, but was too short to allow anybody to gain any meaningful sleep and recharge their batteries. Further, Moore intentionally gave the number no meaning to avoid creating and inserting unnecessary technobabble into a drama-driven episode.[2]

33 was directed by Michael Rymer who had previously directed the Battlestar Galactica mini-series in 2003. He accepted the job without reading the script, saying that based on his writing experience, "33" went well beyond his expectations and excited him.[1]Bear McCreary originally composed the musical theme "Boomer Theme" for this episode; it was later expanded for use with Sharon Agathon, before becoming the de facto "Hera Theme" for the character Hera Agathon in the fourth season episode "Islanded in a Stream of Stars".[3]Stephen McNutt was the director of photography for the miniseries, but when Eick learned he was unavailable for the series, with whom he had worked on American Gothic. In the interim, McNutt had moved on to shooting in high-definition video; this was fortuitous for the production team because, while Ransom had filmed the miniseries on 35 mm film, the production team was switching to high-definition video for the series.[1]

Executive producer David Eick opined that 33 was the "silver bullet" that ultimately tipped the scales in their favor and convinced the Sci Fi Channel to pick up the series. The network's biggest concern in picking up the series was that Battlestar Galactica would fall victim to the same trappings of space opera as other television properties (Star Trek, Andromeda, Stargate). Two aspects that assuaged these concerns were specifically discussed in the episode's DVD commentary. First, 33 went into Gaius Baltar's (James Callis) mind and visited his house on Caprica (shot in Lions Bay, British Columbia);[1] being swept away by the blue skies and beaches in his fantasy was not the sort of imagery expected of space opera-type shows. Second was going back to the devastated Caprica and following-up with Helo's (Tahmoh Penikett) story.[1]

With sleep deprivation one of the major plot points of the episode, actor Edward James Olmos (William Adama) liaised with an expert on the subject and the crew to best depict the actual effects realistically. Following up, director Michael Rymer gave each main cast member a specific symptom to play up, so as to avoid repetition on screen. Olmos and several other cast members took their study a step further, to immerse themselves by restricting their sleep patterns to about three hours a night to emphasize what their expert was imparting.[1][4]

In the episode's DVD commentary, Moore and Rymer related how there were endless discussion about the clocks to feature in this episode. Concerns over digital versus analog, size and shape, the ratio of digital to analog clocks, whether they should run forwards or backwards, and whether any labels should be stenciled or hand-drawn were all brought up. David Eick also noted that as of the commentary's recording, the clock at Felix Gaeta's (Alessandro Juliani) station still had its 33 label affixed.[1]

In a question-and-answer session, Moore revealed a scene written for, but cut from, the episode. In the cut scene, the recurring prop in the characters' briefing room was to have been explicitly introduced and explained; the prop remained in the series, but its back-story was cut.[5]

There was a scene cut from 33 where we saw Laura being given her copy of the photo along with a card that said it was taken on the roof of the capitol building on Aerilon during the attack. The photo was inspired by the famous shot of the fire-fighters raising the flag at Ground Zero that became iconic. I thought the Colonies would have their own version of this -- a snapshot taken in the moment that becomes a symbol of the day they can never forget and of all they had lost. The photo itself is of a soldier falling to his knees (possibly shot or simply overcome by emotion) as he stands on the rooftop over looking the devastation of his city, while the Colonial flag waves at the edge of frame. The inscription below the photo on Laura's plaque reads, "Lest We Forget" in itself a reference to the inscription on the watch presented to John Wayne's character in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."

Other cut scenes included one shot in the pilots' head, showing the pilots "wrecked and exhausted [...] with an exchange between Starbuck and Apollo",[1] as well as several shots of Commander Adama (Olmos) gagging and vomiting because of acid reflux brought on by sleep deprivation.[1] Another line of Olmos'—an ad-lib about suicides in the fleet—was cut so as not to alienate audiences by being "too dark".[1]

As originally written and shot, when Apollo (Jamie Bamber) fires on the Olympic Carrier, it was made clear that he sees people inside. Moore wrote the scene to be strong and clear that the characters were making the decision to fire on the passenger liner in full awareness of the consequences to illustrate and emphasize "the uncompromising nature of the show." This was an "enormous fight" between Moore and the network, with the latter feeling this was another scene that was "too dark" and had the potential to turn away audiences; the network further implied that if the scene were left intact, they may have been compelled to air the episodes out of order. To placate the network, Moore and Eick changed the ending of the episode and "cheated"; instead, when Apollo flies by the Olympic Carrier, it is unclear whether or not there is anybody inside.[1]

In a "small act of defiance", visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel snuck in small, indeterminate movement behind one or two of the Olympic Carrier's windows on behalf of the production and writing teams.[1] The episode also originally ended with Helo's escape from the Cylons on Caprica; again tasked by the network to keep the episode from being "too dark", Moore wrote in an additional scene—President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) learning of the newborn—upon which to end the episode on a hopeful note.[1]

"33" first aired in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2004,[6] and in the United States on 14 January 2005,[7] almost three months later. UK viewers obliged US Battlestar Galactica fans by pirating the episode—uploading Torrents to the Internet—within hours of its Sky One airing.[8]

33 has been released thrice on home video as part of the first season collected sets; on 26 July 2005 as a Best Buy exclusive, again on 20 September 2005, and finally as an HD DVD set on 4 December 2007. The episode was also released on 28 July 2009 as part of the entire series' home video set on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc.[9]

Both series creator Ronald D. Moore and star Jamie Bamber claim 33 as their favourite episode. Bamber described it as "...the perfect episode of Battlestar Galactica." Emphasizing the dark, gritty, and nightmarish aspects of the episode, the actor felt it was a microcosm of the series as a whole.[10] In a March 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Moore opined that the episode was a "fantastic way to open that first year."[11]

33 won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form,[12] and drew a 2.6 household Nielsen rating, attracting 3.1 million viewers and making it the #2 program on cable (8pm-11pm).[13] as of March, 2010, members of the user-contributed television review sites the Internet Movie Database and TV.com rated 33 at 8.4 and 9.2 (rated "Superb") out of 10 respectively.[14][15] At the website Television Without Pity, the staff review rated the episode an "A+", while (as of March 2010) 450 of their readers awarded it an average grade of "B".[16] The New York Post's "10 Most Dramatic Moments of the ’00s" included "33" in its #10 spot, describing it as the premiere episode of "a sci-fi show with high stakes and serious guts."[17]

↑ 2.02.1Ronald D. Moore's Sci Fi Channel blog - [T]he mystery of 33 will be permanent on this show. No explanation, not even the attempt. Let it just be a number that seemed like an eternity for five long days on the battlestar Galactica.